1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for reducing shock to objects during shipping or transport. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus wherein objects to be shipped are placed within a first container which is suspended within a larger second container through the use of elastic members. Desirable results can be obtained with the present invention when members are used which support inner box within outer box through the use of repulsive forces, which push opposing sides of an inner box away from opposing sides of an outer box or through the use of attractive forces, which pull opposing sides of an inner box to opposing sides of an outer box.
Costly fragile or volatile and dangerous hazardous objects which are trucked, shipped, or mailed over distances are often subject to rough handling which may include dropping, kicking, tossing, general mishandling by persons, or numerous other abuses. These incidents typically occur when the objects are no longer under the control of the person who packaged them.
2. Description of Related Art
The history of shock absorption is well known, especially with anyone who has driven an automobile, where shock absorbers, or “shocks”, provide the passengers with a smoother ride while the car is moving.
Various methods and apparatuses for protecting delicate, valuable, and breakable objects are generally known. These are typically referred to as packaging materials. These packaging materials often take the form of bubble-wrap, foam peanuts, blocks, and/or foam padding. Typically, for example, an extremely fragile item which is desired to be shipped to a remote location will be “double-boxed”. This means the object itself is padded and snugly packaged inside an inner box. The inner box is then in turn wrapped snugly with additional packing material, and thereafter stuffed into a larger outer box. With double-boxing, although the fragile objects themselves will be well protected from intentional or unintentional abuses (as if the outer box becomes crunched etc.), the object may still be vulnerable to damage due to shock forces which are experienced by the package. In other words, if the package is dropped during transit, the object's internal structure may be damaged through the sudden deceleration which is well known and understood as a shock force. If the particular object needing packaging protection is an antique vacuum tube (as was the exact case which inspired the present invention), which has an internal structure within an outer glass envelope containing the vacuum. This internal structure can actually break the outer glass envelope of the vacuum tube, from the inside. This is due to the sudden shock force which is generated when the package is dropped. Damage to the vacuum tube can occur even if the inner structure of the vacuum tube does not damage the glass envelope itself. The shock force and/or vibration therefrom can be enough to displace or de-position any related structure, so that the original operating characteristics of the vacuum tube are greatly changed. As a further example, a light-bulb can be irreparably damaged by a shock force, its filament can detach or break when the package is dropped.
In another example, a rare and invaluable Chinese vase can suffer damage produced by shock force when the package is dropped. The instantaneous deceleration-induced shock felt by the actual vase in spite of having the best package padding, could still be sufficient to cause the vase to break. Even if the vase does not break, a hairline-crack can be formed. This would still be devastating to the owner of the vase. Even if a hairline-crack is not observed, the impact may weaken the vase by an imperceptible amount which would contribute to its long term accelerated degradation.
It should also be noted that the U.S. Postal Service does not insure any package for shock-induced damages.
Since conventional packaging materials and methods often fail to prevent damage to shipped objects which result from a shock force, there is thus a present need for a method and apparatus which greatly reduces the likelihood of damage occurring to shipped objects which results from a shock force.